Sherdog.com’s 2013 Fighter of the Year

Fighter of the Year

When Chris
Weidman made his professional mixed martial arts debut on Feb.
20, 2009, Anderson
Silva was already two years, four months and six days into his
historic reign over the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division. Still,
from day one, Weidman fixed his sights on “The Spider,” hoping
their paths might someday cross.

“When I started MMA about four years ago, he was the champion at
185 [pounds], and when I made the decision to go to 185, I had to
believe I could beat the champion of the world or there was no
reason for me to do this,” Weidman said during a UFC Fight Club
Q&A in April. “From the get-go, no matter who I was fighting
coming up, I wasn’t only training to beat those guys I was up
against; I was training already at that point to beat Anderson
Silva and to be the best in the world.”

As Silva pieced together an unprecedented run of dominance, Weidman
honed his skills on the regional circuit. He compiled a perfect 4-0
mark within the Ring of
Combat promotion and quickly established himself as one of
MMA’s top prospects. Stylistically, many looked upon Weidman as a
prototypical foil for Silva. A four-time collegiate wrestling
All-American at Nassau Community College and Hofstra University, he
defeated “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner Ryan Bader as
a senior and tried out for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,
only to have a rib injury interrupt those plans.

Groomed under former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and
respected striking coach Ray Longo, Weidman exhibited a startling
aptitude for submissions early in his development. Inside three
months, he won his first Grappler’s Quest tournament -- his weight
class and the absolute division -- and submitted all 13 of his
opponents in doing so. Moreover, Weidman qualified for the
prestigious Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World
Championships in 2009 after just eight months of formal training
and pushed seven-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Andre
Galvao to the limit in a memorable match in Barcelona, Spain.
Though he lost on points, he emerged as one of the tournament’s
breakout stars and only gained momentum thereafter.

“Now that I’ve finally got the opportunity to get there,” he said,
“I’m not going to let the opportunity slip through my fingers.”

As the MMA world now knows, those words proved prophetic. Weidman
-- Sherdog.com’s “Fighter of the Year” for 2013 -- knocked out a
clowning Silva with a left hook and follow-up ground strikes in the
UFC 162 headliner at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas,
becoming the sixth middleweight champion in the promotion’s 20-year
history. He brought the match to a shocking and decisive close 78
seconds into round two.

Weidman took down Silva in the first round, softened him with
ground-and-pound and aggressively fished for two leg locks, first a
kneebar and then a heel hook. Once “The Spider” returned to his
feet, he started the uncomfortable process of toying with his
challenger in a scene that has grown familiar to mixed martial arts
followers. However, his taunting caught up to him early in the
second round, as Weidman floored and finished him at the feet of
referee Herb Dean.

“I felt I was destined for this, but it still felt a little
far-fetched,” Weidman said. “I imagined it a billion times, but it
still feels surreal. Ray Longo brought in guys in my camp to play
with me and do things to mess with my head. It pisses me off when
someone tries to do that to me. I knew little by little I was going
to creep up on him and then eventually get him. No one is
invincible.”

The loss was Silva’s first legitimate defeat since December 2004
and snapped a string of 17 consecutive victories. The 38-year-old
Brazilian had never before been stopped by strikes.

“I was convinced Chris could do something to shock the world and
beat Anderson Silva,” submission coach John Danaher told Fighters
Only magazine. “People don’t realize that in order to do something
great you yourself have to be great. You have to have the seeds of
greatness inside you to perform great actions.”

After initially balking at the idea, Silva agreed to a rematch. His
second encounter with Weidman yielded far more catastrophic results
for “The Spider.”

Silva’s bid to reclaim the middleweight crown ended with a horrific
leg injury, as Weidman kept his hold on 185-pound gold with a
second-round technical knockout in the UFC 168 headliner on Dec. 28
at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Silva, his leg broken
above the ankle when the champion checked his kick, collapsed to
the mat 76 seconds into round two, his writhing in shock followed
by cries of agony.

“Ray Longo actually broke a guy’s leg like that in the gym by
putting the knee right on that shin when he kicked, just by
following [the kick] up slowly,” Weidman said. “It’s not really
going shin-to-shin, but getting your knee on the shin. I’ve done it
in sparring with some hard kickers to let them know not to kick me
anymore. Their legs didn’t break, but they would either take a
minute to walk it off or they wouldn’t be kicking me as much. It’s
something I’ve definitely been working on, thanks to Longo.”

Weidman nearly finished it in the first round, as he rocked Silva
with a right hand in close quarters, trailed him to the canvas and
battered him with punches and elbows.

“There was a point where I was hoping the ref would stop the
fight,” he said, “but he recovered well.”

Silva weathered the attack, landed some effective shots from the
bottom and pushed their rematch to a second round. There, a little
more than a minute after the battle resumed, he uncorked the
ill-fated kick. An audible snap brought an eerie silence to what
had been a raucous crowd and perhaps marked the end of the line for
arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history.

“When he landed that kick on my knee, I knew I had checked it
[well],” said Weidman. “I thought he would at least be in pain, but
when he put his foot back down, and I saw his leg roll up, I knew
the fight was over and he wouldn’t get back up. It was a crazy
ending.”

One can only surmise that this may have been the last time “The
Spider” will compete inside the cage. Silva turns 39 in April. He
underwent surgery to repair the damage in the hours immediately
following the fight.

“The successful surgery, performed by Dr. Steven Sanders, the UFC’s
orthopedic surgeon, inserted an intramedullary rod into Anderson’s
left tibia,” Zuffa officials said in a release. “The broken fibula
was stabilized and does not require a separate surgery. Anderson
will remain in the hospital for a short while, but no additional
surgery is scheduled at this time. Recovery time for such injuries
may vary between three and six months.”

His two-fight series against Silva now in the rearview mirror,
Weidman turns his attention to the other challengers lurking in the
middleweight division. A showdown with a resurgent Vitor
Belfort figures to occupy his time during the first half of
2014.

“Vitor has been out there taking on all comers, and he’s next in
line,” UFC President Dana White said. “No doubt about it.”

Serra does not see Weidman relinquishing his title anytime
soon.

“This is the beginning of his story,” Serra told the Sherdog Radio
Network’s “Rewind” show. “He could be a very dominant champion. He
could be one of those guys that go down as one of the
greatest.”